Ann-Kristin Hartmann is Chief Executive Officer of LOVESPACE, a UK-based storage company known for its “storage-by-the-box” model, which collects customers’ belongings, stores them securely and returns them whenever they are needed. The service is designed for people who want the convenience of storage without travelling to a physical unit, with booking, collection and returns managed through a digital platform.
Hartmann has more than 15 years of leadership experience across the storage and logistics sector in the UK and Europe. Before becoming CEO, she played a key role in building and scaling operations across the wider platform that includes LOVESPACE and Storebox, helping to develop a hybrid model that combines logistics-led storage services with traditional self-storage facilities.
Some industries carry the weight of familiarity so heavily that it becomes difficult to imagine them behaving any differently. Storage is one of those sectors, built around physical space, long leases and industrial estates, where the business model is well established, and the product has remained consistent over time.
That sense of permanence can be misleading, because what appears stable on the surface can still sit alongside meaningful shifts in customer behaviour. Growth rarely disappears from a category altogether. It often emerges where evolving customer expectations create new points of friction.
The student market
When Lovespace began looking closely at the student market, the opportunity did not lie in building more facilities or discounting existing space. It lay in recognising that student life had changed in practical, structural ways. Fewer students arrive at university with cars, which alters how possessions move from home to halls and back again.
Bedrooms are smaller and tenancies more fragmented – it’s not unusual to move five or six times in a three-year degree. International mobility has increased, with students splitting their time across cities and countries. Budgets are tighter – for students and parents – and flexibility has become a necessity rather than a perk.
Traditional self-storage models are designed around customers travelling to a warehouse space, managing transport and coordinating their own move-in and move-out. For many students today, particularly those without cars or with tight academic schedules, those logistics can add complexity during already busy periods such as exams, housing transitions or international travel.
The underlying need for storage has not diminished, but expectations around flexibility and convenience have evolved significantly.
We reframed storage as a managed logistics service, designed to complement traditional unit-based models with added coordination and flexibility. Collections are arranged directly from the halls.
Items are catalogued and tracked. Delivery can be scheduled back to any address in the UK when the term resumes. The proposition places greater emphasis on coordination, visibility and ease, aligning the service more closely with how students move through the academic year. In doing so, the company broadened its competitive focus beyond space alone and towards overall customer experience.
This kind of repositioning offers a wider lesson for any business operating in a sector with strong foundations. When growth feels elusive, it can be helpful to revisit how customer behaviour is evolving alongside existing assets and capabilities. Warehouses, offices, factories and platforms shape internal thinking, and they remain valuable — but they do not always reflect how customers’ expectations and needs continue to develop.
A more productive starting point is to map the moments that create stress, delay or hidden cost for customers, and then consider how current models can best support those needs. In the student context, end-of-term moves, gap years, internships and study abroad placements create predictable cycles of transition. Designing around those moments, rather than focusing solely on property assets, opens up space for differentiation even in a well-served market.
There is also power in narrowing focus before expanding again. By designing specifically for students, we at Lovespace built operational systems that align with a defined demographic and its rhythms. Once that foundation exists, adjacent segments become easier to serve because the infrastructure is already tuned to flexibility and mobility.
Growth in a mature sector, therefore, comes less from trying to outperform the market and more from understanding a subset of customers so well that the service begins to feel tailored to their lives. That is what many customers value – a personal service that feels integrated and seamless.
The operational reality is demanding, particularly because close to 95% of annual student orders fall in Q2 around the summer move-out window, creating a highly concentrated trading period. While the seasonality is predictable, the volume during this time places significant demands on logistics, warehousing and customer service simultaneously.
Systems and processes
Managing that surge while maintaining reliability depends on careful forecasting, well-embedded systems and strong courier partnerships. In 2026, Lovespace adjusted elements of its courier network to support service standards and ensure performance remains consistent at peak times.
The broader point for founders and operators is that established industries continue to offer significant opportunities. When customer behaviour shifts, companies that are willing to adapt and redesign around changing needs can unlock new demand without inventing an entirely new category.
Storage did not need to be reinvented as an idea. It needed to be reinterpreted in light of how students move through the world today. That distinction, subtle on paper, can make the difference between competing in an established market and unlocking growth through a deeper understanding of customer behaviour. To date, we have served more than 150,000 customers and moved over 1 million boxes – evidence that the model delivers at scale, when it’s aligned to consumer needs.